Man alleges profiling in bloody RIU bust-up
A JAMAICAN man who vacationed with his spouse and young daughter at the RIU Ocho Rios hotel in St Ann believes he was profiled and badly beaten by staff after returning to a room to retrieve an item after checkout.
Raymond Henry booked his stay at the five-star hotel between October 25 and 28 but said that what happened on the final day left him shell-shocked and traumatised.
The hotel said investigations were under way when contacted by The Gleaner last week.
“Our mates from the hotel are working with the police to clarify it. For the moment, as it is a case that is in the hands of our legal department, we cannot make more comments regarding that issue,” a statement from the hotel read.
Henry, a 29-year-old compliance clerk at the National Housing Trust, recalled in a Gleaner interview last week that a short ti me after checkout, his spouse had discovered that her cell phone was missing.
The couple concluded after retracing their steps that she must have left it in the hotel room.
Henry said that this was communicated to front desk staff, who gave him an access card to retrieve the phone.
The man said he located the phone under a folded towel in the room but before l eaving proceeded to relieve himself.
He recalled that at that point, a member of the cleaning staff entered the room and discovered that he was inside.
Henry said the woman asked why he was in the room, at the same time pointing out that the system had flagged it as empty.
He said he showed her the access card.
“I asked her if that’s how she went about doing her work. Just bust in on people and ask wah dem doing in yah? You didn’t even verify with downstairs,” he recounted, admitting that having been embarrassed, he became boisterous.
Henry said while attempting to leave, he was met by two men, one clad in a security guard uniform and the other clad in RIU attire.
“One of them placed their hand in my chest and told me to stop, not to go any further,” he said.
He said he asked why, but no answer was forthcoming.
INCIDENT RECORDED
At that point, he said he hit record on both cellular devices.
Henry said the men objected to being recorded and attempted to accost him.
He told The Gleaner that at first, he managed to evade them, however, one of the men got a hold of him by grabbing his throat.
He said he continued to resist, and that’s when things got ugly.
The men, he said, allegedly began raining blows upon him.
“Them a try get me off the corridor and into the small passage which, at this time me a receive constant blows to the head, stomach, back all over in mi face and mi still hold on to me two phone them,”said Henry.
He said he was pushed to the ground, where the struggle continued, when a knife was allegedly brought into play.
Henry said after continuing to put up resistance, the knife fell but he was immediately pepper-sprayed.
He said that the heavy beating
ended when he made mention of contacting his attorney.
At this point, he said the phones were still recording.
“The one in the company shirt grab the phone from me. The one in the security uniform chuck me back. This time him have a knife in him hand. So me a seh, ‘A weh unnu a try do?’
“Him make after me. So me a seh ‘unuh plan fi stab mi up then?’’” Henry told The Gleaner, sharing that he used the second phone to continue recording the incident, which occurred around noon.
The Gleaner has seen the recordings, which were stored to Henry’s iCloud account.
He said the melee ended upon the arrival of a foreigner who was exiting a nearby elevator.
Bruised and bloodied, Henry said that he was restrained until members of the management staff arrived approximately 15 minutes later.
“Management a seh mi nuffi do nothing, mi fi just call it a day, and said everything will be followed up and if mi want to come back for a day with my family, I can,” said Henry.
He said he declined the offer but agreed to see the in-house nurse.
COMPLIED OUT OF FEAR
Battered, he said management required that he not use any of the access points used by other guests so as to not set off any alarm bells.
He said he complied out of fear.
“Profiling a gwaan right through the place. The day before I had to speak to a young man about his approach and how he deals with locals. I had to tell him not because we aren’t foreigners, he should treat us any different,” said Henry. “We all paid to be here.” Henry said he filed a report at the Old Harbour Police Station in St Catherine while on his way back into Kingston.
The Gleaner has seen a copy of the receipt.
The newspaper can also confirm that Henry sought medical attention and was referred for a CT scan, X-rays, and an ultrasound.
Up to press time, the official medical report was not yet ready.
He has also retained the service of attorney-at-law Mike Anthony Hylton, who said that he has written to the hotel but to date, has not received a response.
No charges have been pressed though Hylton said a lawsuit will be filed on behalf of his client.